The Crimson Brand

by Brian Knight

  Penny forgot the doorknob, forgot about Zoe and Ellen, who were now fighting the gray men by themselves, and catapulted toward the monster that had murdered her mother.

  But you don’t even know if it was your mother, a small but compelling voice in her brain said. What about the tattoo?

  The same design as the Snakeman’s crimson brand.

  Penny screamed it to silence and raised her wand.

  The monster snake blocked the jet of Phoenix Fire she sent at him. It exploded against his invisible shield, clung to it and continued to burn as he slithered down the steep bank into the hollow, then died away when he dropped the shield. She sent another jet of flames at him, but he dove to the side, and the flames exploded against the embankment behind him. Penny’s flames began to spread to the trees and the grass at the hollow’s edge, adding to the destruction and chaos, so she let them go out at once.

  Before she could dodge aside or protect herself, the Snakeman sprang at her. They collided painfully and tumbled to the ground.

  Penny felt his tail trying to coil around her, beginning to squeeze, and jabbed her wand into him. His flesh cooled at once, the coils beginning to loosen.

  He snatched the wand from her hand with an angry hiss and hurled it away, bringing his own to bear on her. He pinned her to the ground and pressed the tip of it under her chin.

  “I can’t kill you, but I can make you wish I had.”

  Penny reached up, flailing blindly, grasping his cold, long-fingered hand. Another hand slapped hers away and grabbed her hair, slamming her head into the hard-packed earth.

  Penny groaned with pain, felt herself slipping away from the action, into darkness.

  “Penny!” Ellen leapt onto the monster’s back and wrapped her arms around him, trying to break his hold. With a hiss of irritation and the flash of his tail, he pried her loose and tossed her aside.

  Penny reached upward again, and her flailing hand found the wand pressed into her chin, poised to deal pain. She tightened her grip on it.

  “No,” he bellowed down at her.

  The wood of his wand began to darken, then to smoke, and a second later it burst into flames.

  He tossed the ruined wand away with a cry, then his hideous horned head darted down at her.

  There was a sharp, blazing pain in her shoulder, a burning like acid in her veins.

  Every tree in the hollow seemed to come to life around them, the narrow whips slashing at the monster on top of her, the thicker branches raining down on him like living clubs.

  He cursed in a language almost too strange to hear, tried to block the blows with his thin arms. He bellowed as a second arm broke under the assault and struggled to slither free.

  Penny rolled away from him, grasping her torn shoulder, groaning as the monster’s venom burned her insides. The same venom that had killed Ronan was now in her. She rose slowly, unable to make her legs work the way they should, and when she tried to walk, they dropped her back to the earth.

  “Help … me,” she whispered, knowing that no one could hear her.

  Zoe stood, rigid as a statue, holding the trunk of the ash tree.

  Ellen was on the ground, winded and firing wildly at the last of the homunculi.

  Katie was nowhere to be seen.

  The monster snake slithered toward the creek. The newly broken arm lay in the dirt, detached and twitching as its cold blood drained away, and the monster dragged itself along with its two remaining arms, heading for Ronan’s cave.

  A mist rose from the place where Ronan’s blood still darkened the soil. It swirled, stilled, shaped itself and solidified into the monotone image of a familiar form. A moment later the mist was gone, and Ronan stood in its place, returned and angry.

  “Turoc!” Ronan roared and launched himself at the retreating monster.

  Three gray men broke from the group trying to fend off Ellen’s spells and flung themselves at Ronan, stone fists raised.

  A fifth, smaller homunculus dropped from the trees, carrying a wooden club the length of its own body. It landed in the center of the four homunculi approaching Ronan and scattered them with back-and-forth swipes of its club, growling and chattering madly. The enemy homunculi went down around him, one missing an arm, which writhed nearby in the dirt, another attempting to readjust its boulder-like head, which was now facing the wrong way on its thin neck.

  The new homunculus’s eyes, Penny saw, were bright, luminous green. It had her eyes.

  Penny’s homunculus raised the club high and brought it down hard on the head of one of its enemies. The stricken gray man fell to the earth, twitching, and the girls’ unexpected ally trampled it deeper into the dirt as it searched out and charged another enemy.

  Ellen started to target it as it rushed past, then raised her wand when she saw it plunge into the remaining golden-eyed gray men.

  Ronan bit and clawed at the Snakeman’s exposed neck but did little damage. The scales there were too hard, the soft flesh beneath too well protected. A swipe of the monster’s tail put Ronan on the defensive, but he avoided the strike and leapt to his usual high perch in the old ash.

  “Finish them, girls! Send them off!” Ronan shouted before rejoining the fight, leaping down to scatter the gray men.

  Ellen saw him and grinned in astonishment, rose to her feet, and turned her wand on the fleeing Snakeman.

  If Zoe saw him, she gave no sign. She stood in place, her hand seemingly welded to the tree, but the assault of the trees around them grew more ferocious. They slapped and pummeled the gray men, hoisted them from the ground and sent them flying.

  Turoc had nearly reached the water when the great ash groaned, its massive trunk bending forward, and its thickest limb swinging down at the monster, striking like a fist at the back of his head.

  The Snakeman collapsed to the ground, his tail giving a final spastic rattle, and was still.

  The moment Turoc fell, the pain working through Penny’s body began to fade.

  She tried to rise again but couldn’t.

  It’s dead, she thought, savagely pleased.

  But it wasn’t. The tail twitched, rattled. Turoc began to stir.

  Zoe and Ellen moved toward him, wands pointed, and Penny felt the temperature in the hollow drop. She shivered.

  His movements slowed, then stopped as a thin frost formed along his body. After what seemed a long time, Zoe and Ellen lowered their wands.

  Zoe stepped closer to him, her breath a visible fog before her face, and kicked him. She might have kicked a rock. He was frozen solid.

  But where was Katie?

  “Kat,” Penny said, and fear brought some strength back to her limbs. She was on her feet and moving unsteadily toward Zoe and Ellen. “Where is she?”

  Zoe pointed out of the hollow, toward the flaming field above.

  Ronan dashed off in the indicated direction without a word.

  Penny ran unsteadily, and found Ellen at her side a moment later, supporting her and helping her up the steep path. They emerged, searching the field for Katie, Zoe joining them a few seconds later.

  They found her, finally, and were not comforted.

  * * *

  Katie stood in the distance, frozen with fear, almost encircled by fire. It raced toward her through the grass, flaring high when it overtook a patch of sagebrush.

  “Oh, no! I dropped her right in the middle of it!” Zoe rushed forward, straight toward the fire, and Ellen tackled her.

  “Don’t,” Ellen struggled to hold Zoe down. “Kat! Get out of there!”

  Zoe struggled beneath Ellen, rolled onto her back and tried to wrestle for her freedom. “Get off!”

  “Katie!” Ronan shouted and dashed through the flames, his fur catching fire and smoldering, but the flames were too intense and drove him back.

  “Stop it, you two!” Penny dropped to her knees and struggled ineffectually to break the girls apart. “Zoe, Ellen … look!”

  Zoe and Ellen paused in their struggles long enough to turn
to Penny, then followed her pointing finger.

  Katie had pointed her wand skyward and closed her eyes. Faintly, they heard her cry: “Procellium!”

  For a moment nothing happened.

  “Let me up,” Zoe shouted at Ellen and caught her off balance, shoving her away. Ellen didn’t struggle but followed Zoe’s cautious advance through the flames. Penny followed close behind, still weak but feeling her strength return.

  It was time to give up. The hollow was going to burn; but they had to save Katie.

  Then the night sky darkened, the half-moon fading behind rapidly thickening clouds, the stars vanishing. Light pulsed overhead, blinding them, and thunder crashed, shaking the ground.

  Penny stumbled, almost fell, then gasped, suddenly chilled to the bone by a cold torrent of rain.

  Zoe and Ellen stopped in midstride.

  Katie stood amid the dying flames, arms outstretched to the sky, head thrown back, seeming to almost float. Only the tips of her shoes touched the ground. A strong wind arose and whipped her rain-drenched hair around her and blew the hem of her soaked shirt around her waist.

  It whipped between Zoe and Ellen, and hit Penny, knocking her back a step. The wind carried a familiar scent, and a whisper of a voice, wordless, like a sigh.

  “Kat?” All three of them spoke in unison.

  Another flash above their heads seemed to answer them.

  Thunder rolled across the wild field again, softer this time, and the downpour eased into a drizzle.

  Katie’s feet settled back onto the ground, her wind-whipped hair settling on her shoulders and her arms falling to her side.

  The tempest ended.

  Katie shook her rain-drenched hair out of her face and examined the field. Smoke and steam drifted from the blackened ground, but Katie’s rain had quenched the flames. Her eyes fell at last over Zoe, Ellen, Penny, and Ronan. Her smile was as wide as Penny had ever seen it.

  “That … was … so … cool!”

  * * *

  The girls descended, shivering, into the hollow, Ronan at their heels. Dead, shattered homunculi littered the ground, and Penny’s green-eyed homunculus stood among them, its club resting on its stone shoulder. Zoe and Katie took aim with their wands, but Penny stopped them.

  “No, that one is on our side.”

  Zoe accepted Penny’s words with a shrug, but Katie continued to regard it mistrustfully even as she lowered her wand.

  Rain dripped from the willow leaves overhead, hissing in the smoldering coals of the fire pit. The monster lay half-frozen before the creek, still struggling to drag himself toward the cave.

  “No you don’t!” Penny sprinted to him, rolled him over with her foot, pointed her wand into his face. The others were beside her a second later, Ronan perched on the monster’s chest, and four wands pointed down at him.

  “Who are you?” Penny stared into his eyes, somewhat dimmer than before but still frightening. She suppressed a shiver, and wasn’t sure if it was the cold or the eyes. “Who sent you?”

  The monster’s breath came slowly. He grabbed weakly at Penny’s leg, but she kicked his arm away.

  She bent down and pressed the tip of her wand into his throat. “Answer me!”

  “I am Turoc,” he said at last, then grinned. “Familiar to the house of Fuilrix. Your mother’s executioner.”

  Three more wands moved close to his face, drawing his nervous glance from Penny for a moment.

  Penny ignored her friends, bent nearer to the wounded monster. She jabbed the point of her wand into the crimson brand on his forehead, and whispered. “What does that mean? Where did you get it?”

  “That is a nasty bite you have there, little red one,” he said, and Penny felt the wound on her shoulder throb in pain again. “It must be very painful.”

  He’s doing it, Penny realized. He’s making it hurt.

  Penny’s homunculus joined them, stomping up the length of Turoc’s body. It threw its club aside as it pushed past a badly singed Ronan and punched Turoc in the face with a large stone fist.

  The monster’s horned head hit the dirt, one of his long fangs breaking free and tumbling into the creek. The glow in Turoc’s eyes dimmed, and the monster fell, unconscious.

  “It’s good to see your present is coming in handy,” Ronan quipped, and limped down to the ground. “Have you named him yet?”

  Penny nodded, and cringed as her pierced shoulder sent another bolt of pain through her. “Rocky.”

  Rocky chattered angrily at Turoc one last time, then turned toward the girls and bared its large stone teeth in a smile.

  Ronan chuckled wearily and lay down near the fire pit.

  Katie grimaced and averted her eyes. “Well, if you are going to keep him at least find him something to wear.”

  Ellen tittered nervously, then went silent and blushed red as Katie turned a sour eye her way.

  “Worry about that later,” Zoe said, cringing a little as she nudged Turoc’s motionless body with the toe of her shoe. “What are we going to do with this?”

  Katie bent down in front of the door and picked up the doorway relic. “I think it’s time we find out where this goes.”

  * * *

  It was Penny who figured out how to use the doorway relic. Growing impatient with the delay and glancing nervously over her shoulder at Turoc’s body, she snatched the knob from Katie’s hand and stabbed the short spike on the back into the weathered wood of the door. The strange etchings glowed brighter. Ignoring the others’ stunned faces, she twisted the knob and pulled the door open.

  “I don’t think this is a good idea,” Ronan said for maybe the tenth time, but since he didn’t have any better suggestions he didn’t try to stop them.

  It was not the library or the cave, not the shimmering liquid surface of the mirror portal, or the closet stuffed with hanging robes. It was as they had hoped, a doorway into nothing. A familiar discordant hum escaped and echoed inside of the hollow, filled Penny’s head with nausea.

  “Hurry,” Zoe groaned, clutching the sides of her head and squeezing her eyes shut.

  Working together, they dragged Turoc to the door, mustering all of their courage to keep hold of the cold, scaly flesh. Penny thought her skin might crawl right off her bones if she had to touch him much longer. He began to stir, to struggle ineffectually as they lifted him to the open doorway.

  “Stop,” he hissed, his voice almost inaudible. “I can answer your questions ….”

  Penny paused.

  “Forget it,” Katie growled, and leaned into him, pushing with all her strength.

  He toppled, fell through the open door, but did not appear on the other side as Penny had expected, floating ungrounded in a sea of nothing. When he passed the threshold, he simply vanished.

  The hum grew a little louder for a second, and that was all.

  “What about these,” Ellen asked, staring around at the broken homunculi.

  For the next minute, the hum of the nothing behind the open door working ugly magic inside their heads, the girls gathered the dead homunculi and threw them into the nothing to join their master. After watching for a few moments, Rocky caught on to what they were doing and joined.

  Katie eyed the helpful creature as if she’d like to toss him in with the others, and Penny asked him to go away for a while. She was only a little surprised when he gave a series of quick bows and chattered at her. She was much more surprised that she could understand the thing’s squawks and chitters. Not in words, but as an affirmation in her mind.

  Yes. He called her something that meant both Penny, girl, and mine, then, Rocky will come if you need him.

  He sprinted off into the trees, and Katie relaxed … a little.

  Finally, Penny approached the open door with Turoc’s lost arm. She threw it in after its owner, then Zoe swept the door shut and tugged the strange, dangerous doorknob from the wood.

  “Did we kill him?” Ellen stared at the door, her face a mask of guilt. “Is he dead now?”


  Penny put what she hoped was a comforting hand on Ellen’s arm and said, “I don’t know, but we did what we had to do. He was going to kill us.”

  Not exactly true, Penny reminded herself, remembering his instructions to the gray men under the landfill to kill Katie, but not Penny.

  Why would she be any different than the rest of them?

  The answer to that—and to so many other questions she had—was gone, vanished into nothing behind the door.

  “We’d better go,” Penny said at last. “We’re supposed to be in town.”

  Ronan rose, almost grinning at them, and limped toward the creek. “You do what you need to do, girls. I for one could use some rest. I hadn’t planned on so much activity so soon after returning.”

  Penny had to admit that he was in rough shape. His fur was singed in places, the bare skin blistered.

  “Thanks for coming back,” Penny said, “but how did you do it?”

  Zoe and Ellen seemed to be wondering the same thing. They regarded him with lively interest.

  “Later,” Ronan said, and Katie seemed to agree that it could wait.

  Katie took Penny and Ellen by the arms and motioned Zoe toward the door.

  “Let’s go!”

  They went.

  * * *

  They emerged just outside Katie’s garage door.

  Downtown was silent, deserted. Even the park, which they ran toward to wait out news of Morgan Duke’s capture or escape, was empty. The grass gleamed wetly in the glow of the moon, and the streetlamps revealed pavement dark with rain. Even if there had been anyone out at that late hour, Katie’s storm had probably sent them running for cover.

  “Let me look at that,” Zoe said, and pulled Penny’s shirt down to reveal her bloodied shoulder.

  Penny cringed as Zoe wiped her shoulder with the sleeve of her ruined shirt. “How bad is it?”

  “Not too bad,” Zoe said, sounding astonished. “You said Ronan … he died from a bite like this?”